Here’s a short but nice article from the ABC (Australia) on everyone’s favorite spiders. Even if you’re an arachnophobe, you’ll like these because they’re a) gorgeous, b) have cute leg-waving behaviors for mating, and c) are very small, so they pose no threat. I’ve posted about them briefly before, and go see the video there.
Peacock spiders are salticids, or jumping spiders; all are in the genus Maratus, and all are endemic to Australia. The ABC report notes that a scientist in Sydney has discovered four more species, bringing the known number of species to 48:
The man who made the discovery, Jurgen Otto, said he believed even the most extreme arachnophobes would be enchanted by the beauty of the creatures, which are just a few millimetres in length.
“They’re just absolutely incredible. People still think that I make them up because they’re so unbelievable,” Dr Otto said.
“People can’t picture that they’re such a package of beauty.”
Indeed they are. Here’s a short film that’s in the article. Now aren’t these much more thrilling than “Blue Fool” or Warhol’s soup cans?
What strikes him about these spiders is their incredible dance moves to attract females.
“The males that have the best routines and best colour combination they will get to spread their genes into the next generation,” Mr Knowles said.
“From a Darwinistic, ecological point of view that’s the females putting pressure on the males to look better and dance better.”
Dr Otto said the peacock arachnids could be found anywhere in Australia.
“As far as we know they don’t occur anywhere else in the world and they seem to prefer the southern half of the continent where it’s more temperate,” Dr Otto said.
“Pretty much every type of bush is suitable for them but you cannot predict where you’ll find them, so you just have to spend a long time looking until you find one.”
If you’re an Aussie and have seen one, weigh in below. But they’re hard to see, despite their color, as they’re this big:
I can’t resist showing some photos of these creatures:
They raise their abdomens as part of the mating ritual:
This guy really raises his abdomen!:
A species described by Dr. Otto last year:
“[Maratus sceletus] looks dramatically different than all other peacock spiders known to date, making me think that this group is perhaps much more diverse than we had thought. Despite the large number of species we have discovered just in the last few years, I can’t help feeling that we may have just scratched the surface of this most exciting group of spiders, and that nature has quite a few more surprises in store.”
![peacock-spider-12[5]](https://i0.wp.com/whyevolutionistrue.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/peacock-spider-125.jpg?resize=658%2C437&ssl=1)
Here’s another video showing the beasts as well as their primate student, Jurgen Otto:
And a final video from YouTube, posted by “Peacockspiderman”:
In September 2014 I travelled to Middle Island, a small uninhabited speck of land a few km from Cape Arid in Western Australia, famous for its bright pink “lake Hillier” (google it !) as well as the pirate Black Jack Anderson who made the island his home and whose treasures have never been found. As tempting as it may have been to look for them I was after a different type of treasure, a bright blue peacock spider (Maratus caeruleus) that has been found there a couple of years ago. So far no live individuals have been film or photographed and my goal was it to do just that. This video is the result. The female by the way is still “unknown to science”
h/t: Phil D.
wow.
Could this be considered divergent evolution since they behave very similarly to the birds of paradise? I’m no scientist, but ….
More likely convergent evolution. And I suppose so. In birds the displays can be more about displaying the quality of their genes. But in spiders there is maybe something else going too, since females will eat males.
CONvergent. Yes. That’s what I meant, I just muffed it. Thanks, Mark.
They are delightful little creatures – you can’t get any cuter than that!
Amazingly beautiful! Some of those designs would look right at home on a psychedelic poster.
The tufts sticking up from the black/white/purple one’s abdomen really do resemble feathers. Wonderful little creatures.
Jurgen Otto’s Flickr account for more peacock spidery goodness: https://www.flickr.com/photos/59431731@N05/sets
Wow, very beautiful!
Structural colours, or pigments? My bet would be for structural (interference fringes, etc).
It’s a bit of both:
“How do males produce their visual signals? Tiny scales/hairs produce the distinct color patterns observed across the group. Like many other salticids studied to date, peacock spider scales reflect light in both the visible and/or ultraviolet range (M.G., unpublished data). Multilayer reflectors are responsible for producing the iridescent colors seen in several salticids. While only a few peacock spider species have been examined in any detail, it appears that blue and green iridescent scales of Maratus males combine surface diffraction gratings with multilayer reflectors to produce interference-based colors. In contrast to this ‘structural color’, the red and yellow patches of Maratus males instead arise from pigmented brush-like hairs. ”
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822%2814%2900591-0
What was that term I used a few moments ago? Oh yes – a “mess”. You’d almost think that the designer was a blind watchmaker, or something.
That last video was especially lovely, complete with weird spider sex. You can see that during the act the male had spines that would become erect, which was interesting. I had never seen that before in an arthropod!
It reminded me of toe-curling during sex… 😀
Don’t look kids!
There should be a warning. Are you even allowed to show that sort of stuff before the late evening?
In an earlier incarnation as a would be arachnologist I collected Oz spiders with a passion. Maratus males in those days were mistakenly believed to be able to glide using the flaps on their abdomen. Most ground-living spiders are cryptically coloured so finding these tiny ‘living jewels’ was always a treat.
Rz
Peacock spiders are way cool!
Fantastic creatures. I’d love to see them in the flesh.
I thought that maybe they could be honorary microcats or nanocats: once you get past all the eyes and the eight legs they are cute and furry and cap jump many times their own body length.
never seen any coloured ones. But do get lots of Little Jumping Spiders that look like the brown ones around
Couple of comments to the comments above. Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are most amazing spiders. Jumping spidrs are the only spiders that have great vision. They can watch TV (small screen) and will try to catch a cricket on the screen. Arachnologists have presented videos of courting males to females (of the same species) and analyzed the female’s reaction (true spider porn movies). Jumping spiders and their behavior have been compared to birds and I totally agree: jumping spiders are just so cute.
A word about females killing the males (in spiders): I have watched many spider matings in my life and in most cases the female does not eat the males and does not even make an attempt to eat the male. I suspect that some of the published reports on females eating males after mating are rather due to the experimental design and dependent on the small size of the container.
Comparing the various species of widow spiders ( I staged numerous matings for each): the Florida red widow (Latrodectus bishopi)never attacks the male, the brown widow (L. geometricus) always starts to wrap the male in silk while he is mating, and fully wraps him up and drops the package. She does not even eat him, but he will never get out of that silk package. I never came around publishing this research. Too many millipedes came along.
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